The present invention relates to the field of market research and data collection systems and devices.
For the past fifty years, the market research industry has seen a gradual refinement of traditional data gathering techniques and methodologies. Likewise, there has been a corresponding evolution and increased sophistication in the use of market and customer data by decision makers to test products, profile customers and identify new market opportunities.
Technological advancements have helped close the loop between head office decision makers and their front line operations. In the past, inventory and sales reports took days or even weeks to reach head office. Now, new technologies have increased accessibility and shortened the xe2x80x9cdata lag xe2x80x9d from weeks to hours. Examples of these technology-driven advancements can be found in almost all parts of the business organization ranging from financial control, hourly sales reports through to instantaneous inventory tracking.
One area where business has not seen a commensurate xe2x80x9ctechnology shock xe2x80x9d is market research. Traditionally, people are surveyed obtain data that is then analysed for various purposes, such as market research, demographic data and other types of statistics.
Typically, a client wishing to obtain certain data will approach a research firm to undertake the survey, compile the data and provide a paper report of the results.
The most common method of obtaining such data is to supply employees of the research firm with questionnaires who personally, or by telephone, interview others, hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9crespondentsxe2x80x9d, to obtain the answers to the questions. The questionnaires are then sent back to the research firm, compiled and a resulting report is transmitted to the client.
This method has the disadvantage of being labour intensive and not providing results quickly enough. Typically, depending on the survey sample, i.e. the number of people sampled, and the number of questions, the turnaround time for the information is a minimum of four to five days. This involves time to code the survey, time to input the data, time to generate tabulations and to generate the paper report. Transit time must also be included in such a process. Furthermore, for on-site, in person interviews, graphic image prompting is limited in that it is awkward to present a respondent with one or more graphic images, and even more so when feedback is requested on a flyer or brochure. Language capability is also limited in the sense that should more than one language be required to perform the survey, each employee must be provided with an edition of the questionnaire in each language, and should preferably be at least conversant in all of the languages.
Reliance on telephone and in person interviewing naturally results in a structural time lag between collecting field data and conveying survey results to decision makers. Fifty years ago an overwhelming majority of research was based on telephone or inperson interviews. The same still holds true today.
In an era where business information is increasingly commoditized, the market research industry has embraced technology primarily to refine and not to revolutionize. For example, predictive dialling (where computers screen outbound calls for live pick-up) has increased the efficiency of telephone banks. However, alternatives to traditional telephone and in-person data collection have not taken root in the market research industry.
The result is a situation where decision makers can have instantaneous and real-time access to information across their whole operation, except for market research.
It is only within the last ten years or so that a nascent attempt to explore alternative automated data-gathering techniques emerged. The following is a brief review of the relevant prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,345 to Cadotte et al. discloses an electronic terminal for collecting opinion data from customers of an organization as to the satisfaction with the services rendered. The terminal includes a keyboard that displays inquiries to a respondent with multiple-choice responses for each inquiry. Each response is associated with a key, so that the respondent presses the appropriate key in connection with the appropriate response. Each response is electronically recorded by a microprocessor controller, and the selection is visually displayed for the respondent. The responses are permanently recorded by the controller for subsequent analysis. Similar devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. RE 31,951 (Johnson et al.) and 5,091,877 (Itoh et al.) These devices are specifically designed to collect data electronically and transmit this data to a central memory.
A disadvantage of these devices is that they require specific programming in order to correlate the responses with the inquiries or questions. Each time the questions to a survey are modified, or a new survey created, these devices need to be reprogrammmed, which is time consuming, costly and requires the intervention of a person having expertise in programming such devices. Further, the devices mentioned above require the respondent to input the responses using the keyboard, which requires the respondent to have a substantial level of comfort with using a keyboard.
Another drawback with present surveying techniques is that the average respondent is reluctant to devote any of his or her time to complete a survey, whether by interview, completing a form or using electronic devices of the type mentioned above. In fact, many people consider it a nuisance when approached by a person conducting a survey. This is primarily due to the fact that would-be respondents fail to realize any personal gain from the otherwise time-consuming interruption of their lives. In light of this, it is believed that people would be more willing and accepting to be surveyed if there were some sort of incentive to entice the would-be respondent.
Shortfalls in the first round of automated data gathering devices resulted in two types of alternative devices being developed. The first group of alternatives, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos 5,361,200 (Webright et al.) and 4,355,372 (Johnson et al.) use keypads to collect real-time data. Keypad-based devices suffer from drawbacks ranging from limited language selection, incapacity to dispense coupons/incentives as well as the inability to accept open-ended responses. These devices therefore lack the flexibility required to accurately conduct on-site research in a retail setting.
The second type of alternative devices were developed for on-site research in a retail setting. Specific alternative devices include U.S. Pat. Nos 5,535,118 (Chumbley) and 5,237,157 (Kaplan). These devices, instead of relying on a keyboard or keypad for inputting a response, use a response card/punch card system. Even quasi-research devices such as the ""157 patent targeted to the music industry, collect demographic information by means of a paper-based membership application which asks for this information.
For these devices which utilize paper, respondents receive a response/punch card with questions, mark their responses on the card and insert it into the device which optically scans or reads the responses. The ""118 device, for example, then dispenses a coupon as an incentive after the response/punch card is inserted into the device.
These devices have not been accepted by the mainstream market research community because of a number of serious methodological problems and lack of flexibility which undermine the accuracy and integrity of the research data.
It is generally recognized in the market research community that a central cause of bias in survey results is the order in which the questions are asked. For example, if one were asking questions on two products X and Y, to avoid bias one should alternate the order so that one begins product X questions fifty percent of the time and product Y questions fifty percent of the time. The research industry commonly refers to this alternative order approach as xe2x80x9cskip rotationsxe2x80x9d. Beginning with the same variable all of the time introduces a definite bias in the survey results.
Any type of device that relies on response/punch cards cannot, by any definition, properly administer a skip rotation. Likewise, it cannot ensure that the respondent answers the questions in proper order. The respondent may even skip critical questions. Respondents have the discretion regarding the order in which they fill out the questionnaire and which questions they decide to answer. This serious methodological flaw effectively discounts these devices as accurate and statistically valid opinion measurers.
Another serious methodological flaw involves the language bias of these devices. The past ten years has seen a tremendous surge in the importance of ethnic marketing. Multi-cultural markets across North America have been relatively untapped by the research industry. Finding interviewers to administer telephone or in-person questionnaires who are fluently multi-lingual is very difficult and prohibitively costly. The devices cited above have not been able to overcome this obstacle.
The response/punch card system cannot effectively prompt the questions in multiple languages because the device is limited by the space on the cards. For multicultural markets and settings, respondent participation will be skewed to the language on the punch card. Even if only ten percent of a target population is outside of the language on the punch-card, this would effectively bias the sample results due to non-participation of a portion of the sample. Since everyone in the target sample could not participate, confidence intervals that measure the accuracy of the survey should not be conducted due to sample bias.
Another key factor that influences the accuracy of survey results is the potential answers respondents are prompted to select from. All of the devices cited whether relying on response/punch card or keypad systems include fixed, preprogrammed responses that offer no opportunity for a response outside of the pre-determined list. For telephone or in-person interviews these responses would fall under xe2x80x9cother xe2x80x9d responses where respondents could provide an answer outside of the pre-determined set. None of the devices allow for open-ended questions, where a respondent can provide a special answer in their own words. Being limited to fixed answers also limits the flexibility of the research process by eliminating the use of open-ended questions. More importantly it introduces bias by forcing respondents to select from a pre-set list, because responses outside of the pre-set list cannot be recorded. The result is survey data that does not accurately reflect the full range of respondent opinion.
Measuring the impact of advertising and marketing is a critical success factor for organizations. Using traditional market research techniques, one cannot prompt images over the telephone. Likewise, as mentioned above, introducing a series of graphics (i.e. newspaper or TV ads) can be cumbersome during an in-person interview for many retail settings. In the worst case scenario, graphics might not be introduced properly or in the right order thus leading to significant bias and error in the survey results. The devices cited cannot prompt a graphic image of a newspaper, flyer or full-motion television advertisement. Market research studies have demonstrated that the most effective means of measuring awareness is to prompt the respondent with the actual graphic image.
Concerning incentives, although the Chumbley device can issue a coupon, the coupon is dispensed regardless of the number of questions that have actually been answered. Respondents could theoretically therefore fill out two questions of a 12 question questionnaire, insert the punch card and receive the coupon. These devices, therefore, at a cost to the operator, issue incentive rewards for partial completions. None of the devices cited conduct any sort of check to ensure that the whole survey was properly completed before an incentive coupon is issued.
As a result of these serious methodological and logistical problems, none of the devices can accurately collect and measure public opinion from a statistical viewpoint. Although the overall concept of automated data collection remains sound, as a result of their weaknesses, none of the devices have been accepted by the mainstream market research industry.
The devices developed to date can at best be described as technology solutions that have been applied to the market research process. The correct solution should be driven by methodological considerations, not technology.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide an automated survey kiosk which is easy to install at a location, does not necessarily require access to standard telephone lines, can be easily reprogrammed, has unlimited language capabilities and whose the data can be sent directly to a client.
In accordance with the invention, this object is achieved with an automated survey kiosk for administering a survey, the survey including a plurality of inquiries, the kiosk comprising:
a central processing unit including memory means for storing said survey and for controlling the administration of the survey;
means for sequentially displaying each inquiry in the survey;
means for receiving survey responses;
means for storing the survey responses operatively connected to the means for receiving survey responses; and
means for transmitting the survey responses to a remote location at predetermined intervals;
whereby, in use, said central processing unit displays each inquiry sequentially on said means for displaying each inquiry and prompts a respondent to answer each inquiry by selecting a response from a plurality of responses through said means for receiving the survey responses, said survey responses being stored in said means for storing said survey responses for subsequent transmission to said remote location.
The automated survey kiosk is programmed to prompt a user for a desired language and then administer the survey in the chosen language. Furthermore, the automated survey kiosk may be remotely reprogrammed with new questions, or by deleting existing questions. The survey responses may be transmitted to the search firm, or may be directly sent to the client, who must be equipped with the proper equipment to communicate with the automated survey kiosk.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an automated survey kiosk which can accept open-ended answers. In accordance with the invention, this object is achieved with a survey kiosk of the type mentioned above, where at least one inquiry includes a choice for indicating that the respondent wishes to answer an inquiry verbally, and where the kiosk further includes a microphone and means for recording the answer.